A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Dave Eggers
rating: 86

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is a memoir of sorts, based on the author's experience of life after the premature death of both his parents. Eggers moves to the San Francisco bay area and assumes responsibility for the rearing of his younger brother, but his neuroticism and recklessness result in a series of amusing narratives. The reader is escorted through time, from poignant experiences involving his parents' sickness to moments of sibling discord and confusion in the aftermath of death. Dazed but optimistic, Eggers forges ahead with a determination to live undaunted and to provide his brother something close to an upbringing.

Dave Eggers' writing style is casual and conversational – familiar and refreshing. He includes devices unconventional in literature, including a floor plan of their apartment to demonstrate its conduciveness to running and sliding. His use of surreal interjections take the reader by surprise, like the moment when his suicidal friend accuses the author of using him only for literary fodder. And when the casting director for MTV's The Real World points out that he's embellishing an interview only to provide the reader with additional autobiographical background.

I have to admit, I was drawn to this book partly due to the title – not because that was necessarily what I expected, but because I appreciated the witty faux self-agrandizement that it implies. I was also attracted to it because I heard the author compared to Jonathan Safran Foer, one of my favorite contemporary authors. In neither case was I disappointed – the book is clever and profound, full of pop culture references and poetry alike.

Approaching the next milestone at the book's conclusion he writes, referring to death, "And we will be ready... so that when it comes we will not be angry, will be content, tired enough to go, gratefully, will shake hands with everyone, bye, bye, and then pack a bag, some snacks, and go to the volcanoe–".

Heartbreaking? Yes. Genius? Pretty close.